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Sorting Toxic E-Waste For A Living In Ghana

Sorting Toxic E-Waste For A Living In Ghana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDoqXswQH_U

Many of the young men who make a living sorting toxic e-waste in Ghana’s massive Agbogbloshie e-waste dump are on medication, according to a BBC video.

Agbogbloshie is the world’s largest e-waste dump as of March 2014, TheGuardian reports. A former wetland and suburb of Accra, Agbogbloshie is known as a destination for legal and illegal dumping of e-waste from industrialized nations. Millions of tons of e-waste are processed there each year.

BBC took a look at what it’s like to work in an environment so toxic, workers refuse to touch the river running through it. Lab tests show heavy metals in the soil such as cadmium and lead at 30-to-100-times acceptable level levels, BBC reports.

“This place has been classified as one of the most contaminated sites in the world,” according to the report.